


Unsorted

by kingkoblih



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Bullying, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-03 01:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11521920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kingkoblih/pseuds/kingkoblih
Summary: The fic no one asked for and yet here it is. A HP/YoI crossover AU where a very special student comes to study in Hogwarts to much displeasure of all his classmates. Fortunately, even in a nest of snakes there is hope for a helping hand.





	Unsorted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [everyone who didn't ask for this yet is here to read this monstrosity](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=everyone+who+didn%27t+ask+for+this+yet+is+here+to+read+this+monstrosity).



> Hi! Just so you know, I made the age difference between the Crispies and Emil smaller. 4 years is awfully lot in the context of Hogwarts, so consider the Crispino siblings only two years older than Emil for the sake of this work! Thank you and enjoy!

_“What do you mean, unsorted?”_

_“It’s been an hour, can’t we just eat already?”_

_“Poor kid, he seems like he’s going to cry…”_

_“Stop staring at him like that, can’t you see how scared he is?”_

Emil had been sitting on the little stool in front of the whole Great Hall for what felt like half of his life. Hundreds of eyes were locked on him as his face turned a darker and darker shade of red. This was so humiliating…

Suddenly he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder and he heard a gentle voice next to his ear. It startled him as the only thing he’d been hearing for this embarrassing eternity was the quiet, rusty voice of the Sorting Hat.

“Get up, young man, we cannot keep everyone waiting anymore,” he heard as he felt the hat being lifted from his head. He looked up, his ocean blue eyes wide with fear. The tall, strict looking witch that brought all the first years in and that Emil was quite scared of from the minute she gave them the long speech about the sorting ceremony, gave him a gentle smile. Much to his surprise. She pat his back, probably to cheer him up, and helped him to get up before saying a quiet “Follow me, Mr Nekola,” as she picked up the old, crumpled hat. She wanted to grab the wooden stool, too, but this time Emil was faster and grabbed it first. His grandma would be _so_ angry if she found out he let an old lady carry a ton of stuff without helping her.

He followed the professor, walking obediently three steps behind her like a lost puppy. He looked back over his shoulder just for a second to see the headmaster standing up. He was giving the students a speech, but Emil could hear only the first few words before he entered a smaller side chamber and the strict-looking lady closed the door behind him with one swift movement of her wand.

He set the stool back on the floor and looked around. The chamber was dark, full of things that looked like there wasn’t a place for them anywhere else, so they were put just there to wait. Before he knew, he was sitting in a comfortable armchair in front of a fireplace, right next to the professor. McGonagall was it? Emil still struggled with English and, along with his problems with focusing, half the words simply slipped his ears.

“Don’t worry. We will find a place for you. The headmaster promised your grandparents we would take good care of you and, I can assure you, Dumbledore is the man of his word.”

****

Emil woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. The old, mechanical one, of course. The loud sound pierced his ears and he let out a loud growl, mornings were never pleasant for this young man, especially now when his dreams were all over the place. Most of them reminded him of his first days in Hogwarts, some of them were about his first days in England. Not pleasant.

He rolled over to his side and looked out of the window – all he saw was a crystal clear sky. Great! A few minutes later he was already dressed in his school robe and started picking up the text books he needed for the day. The room was a mess, he needed to clean up at the weekend, but as he knew himself, he probably wouldn’t.

Emil was the only student of the school to have the luxury of a single bedroom for himself. Some of the students were jealous of him, but what they didn’t understand was that if there was one person in the castle who hated being alone, it was Emil Nekola from the fourth year. When he arrived and was not sorted, the biggest dilemma was where he would sleep. And he was not exactly welcome in the common rooms. It was hard to explain to his classmates why he wasn’t sorted. Of course, he knew he didn’t belong in Hogwarts in the first place. It just hurt more when he heard it over and over again from everyone else. Not that it hurt him – Emil was a very cheerful kid and not many things could really move him to the point of being sad or angry. It all just made him feel out of place, isolated.

He tried first with the Gryffindors, the first years offered him a place on their own. But after a week they realized Emil, as an unsorted student, wouldn’t bring the house any house points. And they didn’t want an alien to live with them “for free”. Then he tried in Ravenclaw, but Emil was a very talkative and curious child. After he repeatedly blocked the entrance to the common room because he kept debating with the statue about the questions it gave him, he was banished. Hufflepuff was the place he stayed for the longest, almost three weeks. But his pervasive questions and excessive care for his classmates soon drove everyone crazy, so they took the chance to get rid of him, too. The last place he tried was Slytherin. Even though he’d heard some not-so-good stuff about this house, he didn’t enter the common room with any prejudice. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the worst experience of them all. He was aware the Slytherins were usually looking down at people who weren’t of pure blood. Emil was not welcome and he didn’t last even six hours before his books were ripped into pieces and his clothes thrown into the lake. And, so, Emil got his tiny little bedroom with a bed and a desk.

He checked himself in the mirror and straightened the big emblem with an H on it on his robe. His necktie, unlike those of his classmates, was not in any of the house colours. He used this opportunity to give his school robes at least some fun aspect, so that day his necktie was neon green with little cartoon carps on it. Sure, the students gave him looks, but he didn’t care. He felt good. He felt like himself and that was the last thing he had.

He grabbed his wand, put the rest of his stuff into the school bag and went to have breakfast.

***

He usually switched tables every day, depending on who he had a group project with or who needed a last minute help with homework. However, for the past few weeks he’d been sitting at the Slytherin table, right by the entrance, not to get in anyone’s way. His new friends didn’t always sit with him, but sometimes they were so nice to stop by an ask about his day.

“Good morning, Emil!” he heard and energetic voice behind him. His body jerked slightly, as he was fully focusing on reading through his Potions textbook, but he smiled wide and looked up at the tall girl with silky smooth hair and purple eyes. She was accompanied by a friend of hers, who hardly even looked at him.

“Hi, Sara,” he replied and straightened his back. He always tended to hunch when reading or writing, a bad habit his grandma always scolded him for. “Are you ready for today?”

“Absolutely!” Sara smiled back. “Our team is ready to kick ass!”

After discussing the weather briefly, the friend started pulling Sara away, visibly annoyed by Emil’s presence. He noticed, but didn’t comment on it. As Sara wished him a good day, he greeted her the same with a polite smile and went back to his breakfast and the textbook. The last thing he wanted was to bring his friends any trouble. The Slytherins already looked weirdly at Sara and her brother for talking to Emil. Sara was the quidditch team’s seeker, though, and she was damn amazing, so no one could say a bad word against her. Michele, her twin brother, on the other hand, was an average student whose only activity was attending the school choir meetings and Emil often felt like he was a burden for him. But, then again, if Michele didn’t want to talk to him, he wouldn’t.

The Crispinos were of Italian ancestry, but they were born in London. Despite that, they still considered themselves mainly Italian and just as they were fluent in English, they were fluent in Italian. Emil never really interacted with them, after all, they were already in their sixth year. A few weeks ago Sara stopped him during a lunch break and asked him if he could give the two of them some tutoring from Herbology. Emil was surprised at first, not understanding why would anyone want _him_ to help with anything. But Sara insisted and at the end of the day, Emil was glad she did. It allowed him to meet two of the nicest people he’d ever known.

Michele followed shortly after Sara, mumbling a quiet “Hi,” in Emil’s direction. Emil looked up again and gifted Michele with one of his wide smiles.

“Good morning, Mickey!” he said, probably way too loudly as Michele’s face scrunched up. He was not a morning person and got easily annoyed in the morning.

“Don’t call me that,” the tall, purple-eyed boy murmured and rubbed his face with the palms of his hands to wake up. His eyes found Sara and he followed after her without saying anything more. Mickey hardly ever spoke to Emil outside their private lessons and even then he wasn’t very talkative. Sure, maybe Emil was entitled to feel bitter about it, but he didn’t. Michele’s privacy was none of his business and as long as he greeted him when they met in a corridor or in a classroom, Emil could consider him his friend.

He quickly inhaled the last bits of the breakfast, packed his school supplies and headed for his Potions class.

If there was something the other students didn’t like him for, it was probably his strange bond with the Potions professor. Emil’s timetable was rapidly different from those of his classmates as he spent almost all his time either in the dungeons, greenhouses or outside near the forest. No one really bothered with asking him why, he was just the weird kid from the fourth year. It was nothing strange to see Emil down in the dungeons for four, five hours straight, working on some advanced potions even the seventh years had trouble with. Emil, on the other hand, was a natural talent and, although he earned a few slaps and rude remarks from the professor’s side just like everyone else, he never failed to surprise. He knew the textbooks by heart and was never afraid to experiment, as he found most of the recipes in his books inaccurate. No wonder he earned a lot of house points, even though he was sure the professor gave him those only because he knew it would not threaten Slytherin’s chances to win the house cup. Emil had his own little humble collection of house points, which served no other purpose than to give him motivation to work more and better. Of course, he could not win the house cup, but it made him happy and he cherished every little accomplishment he made in his studies.

That day was no different. Emil planned to stay in the dungeons for the whole morning, till lunch. By that time, the first and fifth years would keep him company there. He especially loved classes with the first years because he could secretly help them when the professor wasn’t looking. After lunch, he planned to head to the greenhouse since he promised to do some watering and weeding there. And maybe, if he had some time left, he would write a letter home before the quidditch match. The whole day felt as if there was an autopilot in Emil’s head and before he knew, he was standing in front of the greenhouse.

Emil sighed. The door to the greenhouse was open. Emil knew a bunch of Hufflepuffs from the seventh year managed to plant a few cannabis plants in the back of the greenhouse where hardly anyone ever went. He knew about it and he didn’t report it because he found plants fascinating and, to be honest, he couldn’t wait to use some of it in his potions. But everything had its rules and he wouldn’t tolerate the greenhouse being left in an unsatisfying condition. He was very overprotective of his plants and the breeze coming in through the door could seriously harm the most precious pieces. He walked inside and closed the door behind himself. He started searching through the greenhouse, just to make sure everything was at its place. The second he reached for the watering can to start working, he heard voices.

***

“What on Earth was that?!” Michele barked out. His face was red and from the look in his eyes Emil was sure he was beyond mad.

“They were trying to hex you…” Emil mumbled into his sleeve as he was trying to stop his nose from bleeding.

“What were you thinking?! You can’t just come and punch people in the face!” Michele kept yelling.

“But they would hurt you, he had a wand pointed at you and-“

“And he could’ve pointed it at you too!” Michele hissed out. He was walking back and forth in front of Emil, visibly distressed about the whole situation. “Why didn’t you just disarm him?” he asked finally, shooting an angry look at Emil. Emil remained silent, though. He looked down and he was trying to come up with a believable answer, but he couldn’t.

“Can’t you do _anything_ like a normal person?” Michele folded his arms on his chest, burning a hole in Emil’s head with his eyes.

“I just wanted to help a friend,” Emil said quietly, his foreign accent even more noticeable just like every time he got stressed out.

“I’m not your friend!” Michele snapped. He made a few steps forward and suddenly his face was right in front of Emil’s. His purple eyes were burning with anger as he kept growling at Emil. “You’re just a guy who teaches me Herbology, nothing more. You weirdo.” With that Michele left the greenhouse and Emil felt the glass around him shaking as Michele slammed the door shut behind himself.

Emil finished watering the plants, even though he couldn’t see much. His eyes soon filled with tears. Not because of Michele’s words, but because of the pain spreading from Emil’s nose through his whole head. After knocking the wand out of the Slytherin boy’s hand, he received a few well aimed punches. Maybe it was broken. Maybe not. He didn’t know and he didn’t care, all he cared about was doing his job and watering the plants just like he promised.

The next morning Emil sat at the Hufflepuff table. He came in a good half an hour earlier than usually and ate quickly in attempt not to meet the Crispinos. However, it seemed like he wasn’t the only one unable to sleep well that night.

“Emil? Why aren’t you sitting at our table?” Sara asked. She caused quite a stir at the Hufflepuff table since the Slytherins usually didn’t interact with anyone else. But, then again, it was Sara. Despite being surrounded by the Slytherin-aimed prejudice, everyone liked her and she was always friendly and helpful.

Emil’s face flushed as he tried to quickly chew and swallow his food before talking. He couldn’t look Sara in the eye, though.

“Did you come see the match yesterday?” she sat down next to Emil, sensing something wasn’t right with him. Her kind smile and curious eyes made Emil blush even more. “I thought you said you were coming, but I couldn’t see you anywhere. Did you have too much- Wait, is your nose broken?!”

Before Emil could swallow his piece of toast, Sara grabbed his chin and yanked his head to the side so that their eyes met, whether he liked it or not.

“It’s nothing…” he mumbled, his mouth still full. “I put some herbs on it and it doesn’t hurt,” Emil explained. Despite the pain being eased a significant amount, it didn’t change anything on the fact his nose was slightly bent to the side and there was bruising forming under his eyes. His face was slightly swollen and, over all, he seemed as if he hadn’t slept for a century.

“What are you talking about, herbs? You need to go to the Hospital Wing,” Sara quickly stood up and, holding Emil’s wrist tight, she dragged him towards the door. Emil managed to quickly grab his school bag before he found himself in a long hallway.

“What happened?” Sara asked quietly. Emil was glad his friend was choosing the least frequented way to the Hospital Wing, since he didn’t want to be seen too much. And he definitely didn’t want to be seen by Michele. He walked a step behind Sara like a lost dog and stared at his feet as they walked.

“I got into a fight,” Emil replied truthfully. It wasn’t in his nature to lie, even if he didn’t want to get back to the previous day ever again.

“A fight?” Sara suddenly stopped and turned back to him, visibly worried. “But when?”

“After lunch, in the greenhouse…” Emil sighed. He felt tears forcing their way out again. “I’m so sorry I didn’t come to your match. I know I promised I would, I didn’t want to let you down. But my head really hurt and- and I just wanted to take a nap and when I woke up it was already night and I’m sure you did amazing I promise I’ll come the next time please don’t stop being my friend!”

Emil spit out those words in the speed of light, half of them slurred together and mispronounced. He never thought he would experience something like that, but he suddenly found himself shaking and felt as if his heart was squeezed by someone’s giant hands. He was breathing heavily and before he realized, a soft whimper was released from his throat. He didn’t want to be alone again. He didn’t want to spend days all by himself in the dungeon while everyone else whispered about him behind his back, he didn’t want to be the only one to stay in his room while the others had nice reading parties, he didn’t want to stay inside during quidditch matches because no house wanted him at their bleachers. He didn’t want to be alone. He _couldn’t_ be alone.

Sara’s arms wrapped around Emil’s shoulders as she gently pressed him against herself in a tight hug.

“Shhh… Emil, breathe, okay?” she said. Emil only nodded and hugged Sara back. It wasn’t the first time he went through a mild breakdown like this. They used to be way worse and more frequent and calmed down a bit only after the twins started talking to him, but just the thought of losing them stirred all the demons in his head again. But it also wasn’t the first time Sara helped get him through and he was so thankful. There was something about her calm voice and the words she used that made him feel safe and… loved, perhaps.

“You really expect me to leave you after this? A broken face is an excuse I am totally fine accepting,” Sara laughed quietly and pat Emil’s back. “You’re a good friend, Emil, I can’t see a reason why I shouldn’t be a good friend to you, too. So, calm down and let’s go get you fixed, you don’t want all the ladies see you like this, do you?”

*** 

The year went by and before Emil knew it, it was the Christmas. He didn’t go home for the holidays since his grandparents decided to visit the relatives in Austria and Emil, as much as he would love to go with them, wouldn’t be able to get back to school in time. The school was already mostly empty and Emil spent the evening wandering around the castle in his ugly Christmas sweater and enjoying the Christmas decorations everywhere. He helped the professors with some last-minute decoration adjustments and headed to the Great Hall for dinner. There was only a handful of people, all of which were sitting in the middle of the Hall at one smaller table. There was a Ravenclaw girl from the first year, visibly scared by the company of all the older people, two girls from Hufflepuff from Emil’s year, he knew those from Astronomy classes, the whole Gryffindor quidditch team was staying too, Emil wondered why. And then there was a group of seventh years from Slytherin. And what a surprise when he found Sara and Michele sitting next to them! He didn’t expect that, since Sara didn’t mention they were staying. Emil waved at them with a wide smile, but instinctively sat down at the other side of the table. He knew their friends wouldn’t like them to talk to Emil.

As of Michele, they hadn’t spoken since. From the second Michele left the greenhouse with calling Emil a weirdo, they never shared a word. Michele even stopped coming to the tutoring lessons, even though Emil had heard it had an impact on his overall grade. Sara didn’t ask. The only important thing was that she and Emil remained friends. He spent the dinner in silence, even though everyone around him was striking a polite conversation. Emil didn’t have much to talk about, besides, he liked to listen.

Michele left the Hall quite early and Emil spent the rest of the evening talking to Sara.

“Excited?” he asked with a huge smile. He was still munching on a slice of pie as Sara sat next to him.

“Yes! I was promised new quidditch gear for this Christmas. I don’t expect much, but at least new gloves would be amazing,” she poured herself a cup of punch.

“I can’t wait for the season to start again. You’re going for victory this year, aren’t you?” Emil wiped his mouth.

“Aren’t we always?” Sara laughed. “But what about you? Excited about presents?”

“Oh, I won’t be getting any today,” Emil admitted with a smile. He’d already explained to Sara that in the Czech Republic, where he was from, presents were given in the evening of the24th. “Grandma and grandpa are not home, but she said they want to get me something great in Austria, so I’ll wait until they come back,” he explained. “But, honestly, I just hope they send me a lot of pictures from the visit. I haven’t seen great-auntie and uncle in years.”

Sara sat there, her chin propped by her hand, and she listened. Emil often thought about why she was so nice to him. No one else was. And she was older and much more smart and popular, yet she always found time to spend with the unsorted goof from the fourth year.

“Do they know where you are? Your family, I mean,” she asked quietly. Emil shook his head.

“No. They know me and my grandparents moved to England, but they probably think I attend some low-class boarding school or something,” he laughed. “They don’t know anything. And because of the questions they keep asking when we meet, I suspect my grandpa makes up a different story about me every time the family meets.”

“Your grandpa sounds a lot like you, you know?” Sara shook her head with a chuckle.

It was around ten o’clock when they finally parted. Emil was getting sleepy and he was looking forward to going to bed. However, a soft, cold hand touched his wrist as he was nearly at the entrance. He looked back in a surprise – it was one of Sara’s friends from the Slytherin house.

“Hey, Emil. We’re having a little Christmas party down in our common room. Want to join us?” she asked, smiling. Emil was slightly weirded out, she wasn’t exactly someone who talked to him on daily basis. Or, well, ever. He looked over to the group of seventh years who were still sitting at the table, laughing and having fun.

“Well, if you want to come, come,” the girl pressed a little green envelope in Emil’s hand and left as fast as she emerged. Emil waited till he was outside the Hall to look inside. It was an invitation telling him to come by at eleven and it revealed the password to the common room, too. Emil stopped for a second, staring at the bright green letters on the paper. Suddenly his lips stretched into a wide smile. _He was invited to his first party ever!_

He had an hour to get ready and he totally did. After a quick shower, he put on some clean clothes and another ugly Christmas sweater his grandma knitted for him. He even tried to neaten up his hair, not with much success, though. Before eleven, he was walking through the halls, the envelope with an invitation in his right hand. He was guarding it as if it was the most important thing of his life. He couldn’t wait, finally he would be able to party with some new people and he bet Sara would be there too!

When he finally got to the dungeons and stood in front of the wall leading to the Slytherin common room, he opened the invitation again and said the password with almost sacred respect.

Nothing happened.

Huh?

Emil read the invitation once more. Was he pronouncing it incorrectly? He tried again. No door showed up.

Suddenly he heard laughter behind him. He turned around to see the group of seventh years, the girl who invited him in the middle of the group, pointing at him, laughing and grinning. Emil’s smile didn’t fade away, though.

“Hey, guys,” he greeted them, making a few steps towards them, naively believing they were just laughing at his pronunciation. Nothing he wasn’t already used to. “I think you gave me the wrong password,” he said, only to witness the group to burst into even louder laughter.

“We didn’t expect you to actually come here!” one of the boys had to wipe his eyes as tears were streaming down his cheeks from the laughing. “We didn’t expect you to actually be _this_ stupid,” he continued. At that point, the smile on Emil’s face froze. Oh no…

He made a step backwards, but before he knew it, he had good five wands pointing at him. Without saying a word, he turned and headed towards the exit. He didn’t run, but there was a certain spring in his step as all he wanted was to get away from there as soon as possible and hide in his bed to sleep this terrible embarrassment off.

A loud noise.

A flash of bright light.

Emil’s mouth opened in attempt to let out a scream, but in just a second, his sight faded into black and his body went numb. He felt the cold floor on his cheek and heard panicked voices and steps all around himself. Then the black nothingness took over him.

***

When he opened his eyes, he smelled fresh flowers and the sun was tickling his nose. He didn’t recognize his surroundings and started panicking. He sat up quickly, only to fall back down on his back because of the pain shooting into his whole body.

“Emil?” he heard a familiar voice. “Are you awake?”

Emil squinted at the ceiling for a minute before a well known face came into his sight. Michele was bending down above his bed. Before Emil managed to form his thoughts into a sentence, Michele was gone again.

“Sara! He’s awake!” he heard him yelling and then rushed steps came closer to him. He wasn’t able to keep his eyes open for any loner, he was tired, he was sore… But when he felt two pairs of arms hugging him, he smiled and his panic backed away.

“Thank God you are awake,” Sara whispered near his ear. He was suspecting she had been crying.

“Where am I?” Emil asked, squinting again at his two companions.

“At St Mungo’s, of course!” Sara cried out and sat down on one of the chairs next to Emil’s bed. She held onto Emil’s hand still and when Emil’s eyes finally got used to the room, he could see how distressed Sara looked. Michele didn’t seem much better, sitting there next to his sister, eyes fixed on a vase with tulips standing on the night table.

“Did I get too drunk?” Emil asked with a small, painful laugh. All he remembered was that he was heading to a party.

“What? That bastard Barry wanted to knock you out with a simple tripping spell, but that herd of dumb baboons blasted at you all at once. You got your back hit by five or six spells at once,” Michele said bitterly. The memories came back to Emil in a heartbeat, though he still didn’t remember much. He recalled the laughter and the group of older kids pointing at him, the loud noise and bright light. He shook his head slightly to clear his mind from these weird memories.

“How are you feeling?” Sara asked and he felt her grip on his hand tightening.

“A little bit too much,” Emil admitted. “I can feel muscles I didn’t know I had. Like that time I had to clean the greenhouse walls without magic. Except worse,” he joked and it seemed to calm Sara down, even if only slightly. She stood up and placed Emil’s hand back on the bed.

“I’ll go check if a Healer can see you.”

After that, Emil stayed in the room with Michele only and he could sense the tension building up between them. He didn’t really know what to say or where to start since he wasn’t sure Michele wanted to talk to him in the first place.

“Hey, listen,” Michele spoke first, much to Emil’s surprise. The Italian boy moved to Sara’s chair to be closer to Emil and frowned. “You need to stop being so nice to everyone.”

“What?” Emil squinted back at him, he wasn’t sure what the other boy was talking about.

“You need to stop being so dumb, Emil. They were five people aiming at you, you should have at least tried to defend yourself!” Michele said boldly. “You can’t back out of every fight just because it might hurt someone else, they were there to hurt you in the first place!”

Emil understood. He smiled.

“That’s not it.”

“What?”

“That’s not it. I’m not trying to be nice.”

“Then what is it?” Michele leaned back into the chair and folded his arms on his chest.

“I can’t defend myself. I don’t know how,” Emil said simply. And Michele seemed even more angry.

“What do you mean you don’t know how? You’re in the fourth year, the defence spells are taught in the second y-“

“I’m not a wizard, Mickey,” Emil laughed.

An awkward silence filled the room.

“What?”

“I’m not a wizard. I don’t have a wand to do magic with it, I just use it to-“

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE NOT A WIZARD!” Michele suddenly snapped again. “You go to a school of wizardry! It even has it in its _name_!”

But Emil was just chuckling in the bed, secretly enjoying the sight of the angry Italian boy in front of him. Mickey’s angry rant slowly switched into Italian and soon Emil was watching the boy marching back and forth around the room, talking to himself so fast Emil wasn’t sure if he was even speaking any language anymore. When Mickey finally seemed to calm down a bit and opened his mouth to say anything, suddenly another figure appeared in the door.

“Emil!” a tall woman walked into the room and Emil, to his amusement, noticed Michele stopped at his spot with his mouth slightly open. The woman was tall and slim, her light brown hair was flowing all the way down to her waist and she was wearing a long, old-fashioned dark green dress. There were a few wrinkles in her face and she radiated indescribable wisdom and natural respect. Yet still, her face seemed to be from out of this world, that’s how beautiful she was. Her big blue eyes seemed slightly hazy, even though they were focused at the boy in the bed.

“My sweet little boy. Are you feeling better?” she asked as she leaned down to kiss Emil’s forehead.

“I’m fine, grandma, don’t worry.”

***

“So your grandma is…”

“A goddess,” Emil nodded, repeating the word for the third time already for Michele. With the help of the Healer who came to check on him, he finally sat up and was feeling a bit more comfortable.

“A goddess, as if up in the heaven goddess?” Michele asked, still not sure how to take all the new information.

“Oh, no, no, no,” Emil laughed. “Not at all. See, they’re more of, uh… Healers, really. Doing rituals, curing people, taking care of the forests… Divination and stuff.”

Michele still seemed dazzled by the new information. He was sitting down, staring at Emil as if he was some kind of an alien life form explaining a life on another planet to him.

“So then… What does that make you?” he asked.

“I don’t know, my grandma calls me a goddess, too,” Emil laughed. “She didn’t think I would be like this, she said my mom never showed any signs of being one,” he shrugged.

“But why are you studying here, then? Don’t you have some place for people like you to study at?” Michele was finally thinking rationally again, that was a good sign, Emil thought.

“No. My granny is the last one. Well, now it’s the two of us,” he chuckled. “She could teach me at home, but she thought I needed more friends. And learning things from another perspective would do me good, too. Besides, England has more interesting animals I can learn about and she knew I love animals,” Emil explained.

“You mean creatures. Magical creatures,” Michele corrected him and Emil simply nodded. There was another silence during which Emil shifted on the bed slightly to sit a bit more comfortably. They kept staring at each other for what seemed like forever.

“So you can’t do magic?” Michele asked finally.

“I mean, I can do _some_ ,” Emil replied with a slight shrug. “I mastered Aguamenti quite easily. And I can shoot some nice blue sparkles,” he added, laughing at how pathetic that must’ve sounded to a boy who could already turn a dining table into a majestic looking llama without even saying anything. Michele didn’t laugh, though. He stood up.

“Good. As soon as you can get back on your feet, I’ll teach you some defence spells,” he said boldly and left the room before Emil was able to react.

***  


“You…!” Michele shrieked as Emil laughed. They had been practicing for the past few hours in an empty classroom. Emil already got the gist of some easy spells. Nothing too advanced, but he was at least able to repel most of the spells Michele tried to use against him. Well, with an 80% success rate, that was. This time Emil aimed well and Michele’s deflected curse only barely missed his ear.

Their relationship changed drastically after Emil got attacked. It felt as if Michele was hiding something from him. He didn’t know why, but he also didn’t feel the need to ask. Michele became his friend. For real, this time. Emil started helping him with Herbology and Potions while Michele gave him private lessons of Charms. It was a brand new thing for Emil, he’d never attended Transfiguration or Charms classes, as it was not considered to be needed in his case. Now he discovered a brand new world of possibilities. Besides, before he knew it, he spent way more time with Michele than he ever did with Sara.

As they finished their practice for the day, Emil walked to the window to close it. It was already March, the breeze was still cold but fresh and Emil could smell the forest. His eyes trailed up to the stars lazily appearing on the dark blue sky and he leaned against the frame of the window with a hazy smile.

Michele finished cleaning the classroom and walked over to Emil to tell him they were ready to go, but he stopped mid step as he saw Emil’s face. There was an expression he’d never seen on Emil before. He looked relaxed, calm, balanced, his eyes were slightly hazy, he reminded Michele of Emil’s grandma so much. And, as ridiculous as it sounded, for a second there he understood why she called her grandson a goddess.

“The stars are so beautiful tonight,” Emil sighed, the blue eyes sparkling in the moonlight.

“Yeah… Beautiful…” Michele repeated quietly, his gaze still locked on the younger boy’s face.

“Hey! Do you want to go to the Astronomy Tower?” Emil suddenly turned around, excited and lively as always.

“Uh… But it’s late, isn’t it?” Michele quickly turned away to grab his bag. He was sure his face was turning red and he was not letting Emil see that.

“Pft. Who cares?” Emil’s smile widened and he gently bumped Michele’s side. “Come on, it’s Ostara today!”

“It’s _what_?”

“The spring equinox,” Emil explained. “I want to watch the stars for a while.”

Michele turned to his friend and saw exactly what he didn’t want to see. Emil was making puppy eyes on him. Goddamn it!

“Fine,” he murmured with a heavy sigh. “But only for a little while, okay? I have an exam tomorrow.”

It took only a few minutes and Emil was already unlocking the door to the steep staircase leading up to the tower. As a student of different craft, he had some privileges only he could use, such us access to certain places for his need of leading small rituals and practices. When they finally got up, Michele let out a quiet, amazed sigh. He’d spent a few nights in the Astronomy Tower, but the occasion was always an exam. He was too focused on his work to really appreciate the beauty until now. Emil walked to a big wooden chest and pulled out two warm blankets from it. One landed around Michele’s shoulders and the other served as a warm isolation for Emil himself. He sat down to what seemed like his usual spot and without a word stared at the sky. Michele noticed Emil’s face was, again, looking so different, yet so familiar… He sat next to his younger friend and tried to find out what was it Emil was staring at.

“Do you actually see something in there, or is it just you enjoying stars way too much?” he asked carefully. Emil chuckled, he was listening, but he didn’t move an inch.

“Sometimes I see something, sometimes I don’t. Granny always says I shouldn’t rush divination. If things don’t want to be revealed, they won’t be revealed,” he said. Michele was taken by a surprise. He’d never heard Emil speak so calmly and wisely, not even when he was explaining Herbology to him. And God knew Emil _loved_ Herbology.

“Soo… You see anything tonight?” Michele asked and his gaze, once again, fell on Emil’s face. For some bizarre reason, he couldn’t get enough of it. Of those sparkling blue eyes…

“I see happiness,” Emil replied after a little silence. “And confusion,” he added. “I wonder what that means.”

“You don’t know what it means?” Michele’s head tilted slightly. He himself never took Divination classes, mostly because he’d heard the professor was kinda wacky.

“Of course I don’t!” Emil laughed. “What did you expect, that I’d tell you the answers to your tomorrow’s exam?” he shook his head and finally looked at Michele. “I only see things, the meaning I give them depends on me,” he repeated what his grandma had told him years ago.

Their eyes locked and there was silence. Not the awkward, suffocating silence that filled classrooms when no one knew the right answer to a question, this was a nice silence, a stunning moment that brought both of them closer to each other. Emil’s eyes turned even more unfocused and Michele’s cheeks flushed slightly. His lips parted as he was about to say something, but they closed again after he realized his head was empty. He had nothing to say, he didn’t feel anything, but the absolute calmness and heat inside his chest, as if-

“There’s summer blooming inside you,” Emil said suddenly with a small chuckle.

“E-Excuse me?” Michele stuttered, probably for the first time in his life. He didn’t understand how Emil could describe what he felt inside with these simple, yet terrifyingly accurate words.

“I said, there’s summer blooming inside you. You’re happy,” Emil repeated.

Michele didn’t think anymore. He leaned forward and his lips met with Emil’s. It was a soft, innocent kiss and for a brief second Michele felt as if the summer in his heart and the endless spring in Emil’s mixed together in that one simple touch.

“No,” Emil’s eyes suddenly gained their sharpness back. He pulled away and before Michele realized what happened, Emil’s head was hidden under the warm, fuzzy blanket. He was curled up under it as if the thin sheet of fabric could hide him from Michele’s sight. “I don’t want you to…”

“Kiss you?” Michele quietly finished the sentence Emil seemed not to be able to find the end to. “I’m sorry…” he almost whispered. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know if Emil wanted him to leave or if he should comfort him, all he knew was that he screwed up and if he could, he would just disappear into thin air. “I’m sorry, Emil, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad,” he quickly rambled. After Emil didn’t respond, Michele decided to take the risk. He sat closer to him and put an arm around Emil’s shoulders, knowing Emil found touch comforting. The younger boy leaned against him and Michele felt how the other’s body moved fluidly with every breath.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly.

“Mhm,” he saw Emil nodding under the blanket. He reached up and gently pulled the blanket off his head.

“I-It’s just- I-“ Emil wasn’t able to express what he felt. But it was okay, Michele didn’t need him to.

“It’s okay, don’t worry,” he tried to calm Emil down. Sara had told him about the panic attacks Emil sometimes suffered and he was just hoping this wouldn’t give him one. “I’m sorry, Emil…”

“N-No, I…” Emil had to take a deep breath to calm down and switch his already panicking brain from Czech back to English. “Hug…” he whispered. “Only hugs, please. For now.”

Michele nodded and smiled softly. _For now_. He wrapped both his arms around Emil and pulled him into a tight, comforting hug. He felt how Emil hid his face in Michele’s shoulder and how his breathing was slowing down again.

“You okay?” Michele asked once more, he had to make sure. This was such a bizarre situation, definitely one he’d never thought he would end up in. Despite that, he was so glad he was holding Emil this close. Sure, he was a dork and he set Michele’s shoe on fire while trying to create a blueball flame just an hour ago. But something about the hug felt right. In fact, everything about the hug felt right. Emil started giggling all of sudden.

“What?” Michele asked, slightly confused. He couldn’t contain the little smile appearing on his lips, though.

“Happiness and confusion,” Emil said and nuzzled his face into Michele’s shoulder some more. “Hey… Do you want to go to the Madam Paddifoot’s Tea Shop with me on Saturday?” he asked, finally sounding himself – cheerful and excited, though still quiet.

“Sure,” Michele said without thinking twice.

It was a long night they spent on the tower. Watching stars, watching the moon, Michele let Emil babble about his favourite planets and their meanings and occasionally rubbed his back or touched his hand. Emil was way shier than he expected, but it that couldn’t change anything on what had happened. He felt safe next to him and he was sure Emil felt the same. The night was magical, the cold air forced them to share the heat under the two blankets and they felt as if they were to be happy forever. Michele finally wasn’t an average student without a purpose, he no longer was only _Sara’s brother_. From now on he was also Emil’s boyfriend. And Emil finally felt – he _knew –_ he belonged somewhere. And that somewhere was Michele’s arms.


End file.
